April 28th 2024.
Jocelyn Gecker reported that Maryam Alwan thought the worst was over after being arrested by New York City police in riot gear and held in custody for hours with other protesters on the Columbia University campus. However, her relief was short-lived when she received an email from the university the next evening. It stated that she and other students were being suspended due to their participation in the "Gaza Solidarity Encampment," a tactic used by colleges to quell the growing campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war.
The students' situation has become a focal point of the protests, with both students and faculty calling for their amnesty. The main concern is whether the universities and law enforcement will drop the charges and refrain from any further consequences, or if the suspensions and legal records will follow the students into their adult lives.
The terms of the suspensions vary from campus to campus. At Columbia and its affiliated Barnard College, Alwan and dozens of other students were arrested on April 18th and were immediately banned from campus, classes, and dining halls, both in-person and virtually. This has raised questions about their academic future, including their ability to take final exams, maintain financial aid, and even graduate. While Columbia claims that disciplinary hearings will determine the outcomes, Alwan has not been given a date for hers.
Alwan, a junior majoring in comparative literature and society, described the situation as "dystopian." What began at Columbia has now become a nationwide showdown between students and administrators over anti-war protests and the boundaries of free speech. In the past 10 days, hundreds of students from colleges such as Yale University, the University of Southern California, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Minnesota have been arrested, suspended, put on probation, and in some rare cases, expelled.
Barnard, a women's liberal arts college at Columbia, suspended over 50 students who were arrested on April 18th and evicted them from campus housing. This information was obtained through interviews with students and from the campus newspaper, Columbia Spectator, which had access to internal campus documents. However, on Friday, Barnard announced that they had reached agreements with "nearly all" of the students, restoring their campus access. The exact number was not specified, but the statement from the college stated that all students who had their suspensions lifted had agreed to follow the college's rules and were placed on probation in some cases.
Despite this, on the night of the arrests, Barnard student Maryam Iqbal received an email from a dean stating that she could briefly return to her room with campus security before being kicked out. The email read, "You will have 15 minutes to gather what you might need." This caused over 100 Barnard and Columbia faculty members to stage a "Rally to Support Our Students" last week, condemning the student arrests and demanding that the suspensions be lifted.
Columbia is currently trying to remove the tent encampment on the main lawn of the campus, where the commencement ceremony is set to take place on May 15th. The students are demanding that the school sever ties with Israel-linked companies and guarantee amnesty for all students and faculty members who were arrested or disciplined in connection with the protests. Negotiations with the student protesters are ongoing, according to Ben Chang, a spokesperson for Columbia. "We have our demands, and they have theirs," he stated.
For international students facing suspension, there is an added fear of losing their visas, according to Radhika Sainath, an attorney with Palestine Legal. She helped a group of Columbia students file a federal civil rights complaint against the school on Thursday, accusing Columbia of not doing enough to address discrimination against Palestinian students. "The level of punishment is not just draconian, but it also feels callous," Sainath expressed.
At Yale University, over 40 students were arrested at a demonstration last week, including senior Craig Birckhead-Morton. He is set to graduate on May 20th, but the university has not yet informed him if his case will be brought to a disciplinary panel. He is worried about receiving his diploma and if his acceptance to Columbia graduate school could be jeopardized. "The school has done its best to ignore us and not tell us what happens next," said Birckhead-Morton, who is majoring in history.
Colleges across the country have struggled to strike a balance between free speech and inclusivity. Some protests have included hate speech, antisemitic threats, or support for Hamas, the group responsible for attacking Israel and sparking the war in Gaza that has claimed over 34,000 lives. With commencement ceremonies approaching, there is added pressure to clear the protests. University officials claim that arrests and suspensions are a last resort and that they give ample warnings before removing protesters from the designated areas.
Vanderbilt University in Tennessee is believed to be the only college to have expelled students for protesting the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to the Institute for Middle Eastern Understanding. More than two dozen students occupied the university chancellor's office for several hours on March 26th, which led to police intervention and the arrest of several protesters. Vanderbilt then issued three expulsions, one suspension, and put 22 students on probation.
Over 150 professors at Vanderbilt signed an open letter to Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, criticizing the university's actions as "excessive and punitive." Jack Petocz, a freshman who was expelled, is currently appealing the decision and is allowed to attend classes, but he has been evicted from his dorm and is now living off-campus. Petocz stated that his experience with protesting in high school was what helped him get into Vanderbilt and secure a merit scholarship for activists and organizers. His college essay focused on organizing walkouts in rural Florida to protest Governor Ron DeSantis' anti-LGBTQ policies. "Vanderbilt seemed to love that," he said. "Unfortunately, things changed when I started advocating for Palestinian liberation."
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